300g shredded white vine + 5L distilled H2O + 2.5tbsp distilled white vinegar (to start with). house has been smudged, intentions have been set, and off we go. will update later!

[edit]

first wash is finished, now onto the second. a question though: first wash left me with a lot more liquid than i was expecting. should i reduce this now or wait for second and third washes to be added? (i think i'll need a bigger pot! whoops)

SWIM starts reducing right away, and adds successive brews directly in.

thank you! i don't know what my hesitation was all about.

...and now i am looking at all this liquid and wondering how long reduction is going to take! yikes. that's what i get for starting off with a bigger batch, i guess. worth the wait, i'm sure

I'm doing it right now....

Same here just started reducing my first wash, but going for super long boils in the crockpot 8x8x6 this time just to see if there really is a difference.

Total amount of time spent in the kitchen yesterday:

3:00pm to 2:45am

3x3 washes, then because there was so much water in the first wash (lesson learned!!), an additional 2+ hours to reduce to (roughly) 600ml liquid. This leaves me with 300g/600ml, or 50g/100ml. i had hoped to get to 50g/50ml but i was so exhausted after almost 12 hours in the kitchen that i decided to stop at 600ml.

I wonder if working with a smaller quantity of vine would have been easier?
Definitely was a unique and interesting experience to be tethered to the kitchen - to a specific task - all day. Really brought out my monkey-mind tendencies, gave me a lot to reflect on, and also worked as kind of a moving meditative practice for me, to keep bringing my attention back to what was cooking on the stove. Also, since we had initially anticipated drinking last night, we had kept to a fairly low-key diet most of the day - bread with cream cheese, rice, various fruits, carrots, coconut water...THAT part helped me to reflect on my usual eating habits for sure!

So now there are 6 glass jars in the fridge, each with approx 100ml inside. There does seem to be a bit of sediment settled to the bottom of each - with only 100ml of liquid, I wonder if it is better to decant and try to pour off some of the lighter-colored liquid at the top? Or better to stir the sediment back into solution, and use the full 100ml as one dose?

Any thoughts on this?

Using a crockpot for the reduction or for the washes? I am curious how that worked out for you - I have a crockpot but I hadn't thought of using it.

Crockpot just for the washes. It would take way too long to reduce it in the crock, especially because it won't even boil at all with the lid off. The 8 hr. wash is working out well though, turn it on and go to bed...or to work. You just can't get in a hurry.

Ladybug, you mention a lot of sediment. How did you strain? I use a well worn (clean) t shirt and also end up with a fair amount of sediment but I just drink it on down. I feel like you would be getting rid of a lot of the good stuff if you filtered it off. Also, if you had more pots you could split it up to maybe reduce faster. Anyhow, You've probably launched by now. Good travels and do report back.

Are you adding any light to that brew my friend? If I understand right you'll have 50g per person. Could be a little weak if it's vine only but I guess maybe ok if it's a first introduction, and definatly drink up that sediment .

we've got plans for light as well - reducing a brew right now.

we have enough for 150g caapi each if we need, and we'll have up to 50g light each although something tells me that won't be necessary. start small and work up, right?

thanks for the input- not a LOT of sediment, just a little darker at the bottom. used a twice-folded cheesecloth instead of a shirt.

will let you guys know how it goes